You seem to have this real fear about strip malls. Did you have a bad experience in one, like being left there as an infant in a shopping cart? Catholics like you are about as loving and smart as these muslims this thread is about. Check out my poll the other day. Where do you stand on it?
IT's generally a good idea, when thinking of such things, to stop and think "am I making a broad sweeping statement that can apply to a hefty percentage of an overall demographic?". If the answer is yes, chances are you're wrong.
Allow me to share an anecdote. Once upon a time a looong time ago my mother was moving from New York to Florida with her family. Now she was a little girl at the time but old enough to remember. While traveling along the Old 301 in Georgia, their car broke down. Where specifically escapes her memory, but they were sadly stuck there for a day while the vehicle was repaired. Now, this was on a Saturday. They were able to secure lodging at a motel ran by an older couple. The car would be repaired by mid morning the next day.
Now, this older couple were southern baptist, and like all good southern baptist of course attended church on Sunday. However, my mother, and her three sisters, and their little baby brother, newly born, had not had anything to eat since the day before. My grandfather had money and was willing to pay of course, but they didn't have a vehicle, and the nearest place to go was far enough that my grandmother and her baby and the family couldn't make it walking in a reasonable time.
Now, in this situation I myself would offer to go pick something up for the family if I had a vehicle, or even invite them to take some of my food. But you see, that would have meant being late for church, something the couple wouldn't have with.
And you see now my dilemma in pronunciations of the "loving and smart" snideness. You see there is no small amount of evil in the world, but I find that often evil comes in small amounts. Oh yes, we can look to evil in its awe inspiring grand forms, Hitler and the Nazi's, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, et al., but while that truly is evil, I find the more common, prevalent, and in my eyes damaging evil is the little evils.
So allow me to ask you. If you know someone is suffering on a Sunday morning from hunger, would you miss (or be late for) church in order to feed them? Would it matter to you what religion they were when you saw them hungry? Why? Why not? In the measure of sin, is knowing there is someone in pain that you can help and ignoring them worse, or better, then missing (or being late for) church?
What has the scriptures taught you? What principles do you live by? Do you consider yourself a good person, or do you consider yourself a sinner who attempts and fails at goodness?
